A femtocell is generated by a small cellular base station that connects to a service provider network via broadband. A femtocell typically supports two to four mobile communication devices (e.g., user equipment (UE)) in a residential setting and eight to sixteen UEs in a business setting.
A macrocell is maintained by a macro network that may include a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, an evolved high rate packet data (eHRPD) network, mixed LTE/eHRPD networks, etc. For example, a macrocell may be generated by a base station, an eNodeB (eNB), etc. A macrocell typically supports multiple UEs and may overlap with one or more femtocells. A network that includes a macrocell overlapping with one or more femtocells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network.
When a UE is connected to a macrocell and enters into a range of a femtocell, the UE may lose connectivity with the macrocell due to the femtocell being locked in a closed subscriber group mode of which the UE is not a member. In which case, the femtocell will not grant access/handoff to the UE, and will create interference for the UE. For example, the femtocell may utilize particular resource blocks (e.g., time slots, frequency slots, bandwidth, etc.), to connect with and/or communicate with the UE. The particular resource blocks may be the same resource blocks utilized by the UE to connect with and/or communicate with the macrocell. Thus, the femtocell may interfere with the UE's connection with the macrocell, and the UE may lose connectivity with the macrocell.